With iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 scheduled for official release next month, Apple today revealed a new suite of accessibility capabilities coming "later this year" to its iPhones and iPads. Presumably, these are features of those operating systems.

The most intriguing feature of the lot is eye tracking, which works with both iPads and iPhones and allows you to operate the gadgets with your eyes, as the name suggests.

Although it is intended for users with physical impairments, anyone can use it. Artificial Intelligence will power eye tracking (since everything needs to be now). You will first need to go through a brief calibration process using the front-facing camera, after which you will be ready to start. Because on-device machine learning powers this, no data is ever removed from your device.

Not only does Eye tracking function with all apps, you won't require any extra hardware or gadgets. It will allow you to use your eyes to browse through an app's elements and use Dwell Control to activate each one by focusing your gaze on it.

Next, your iPhone's Taptic engine will play taps, textures, and subtle vibrations that are all calibrated to the music you're listening to. This feature is reminiscent of Sony's Music Haptics, which launched many years ago, although Apple's Music Haptics is initially limited to Apple Music. If developers so choose, they can use the API to incorporate more interesting music into their own programs.



The most exciting announcement from Apple is Vehicle Motion Cues, a function designed to lessen motion sickness in passengers using iPhones or iPads while in motion.

Although it's unclear exactly how, this will assist reduce motion sickness by animating dots on the screen's borders to depict changes in vehicle motion. We're eager to learn more about this feature.



Along with these new features, CarPlay also gets Voice operate, which lets you use your voice to explore CarPlay and operate apps. Additionally, Sound Recognition notifies deaf or hard of hearing individuals when cars horns or sirens are approaching, and Color Filters cater to those who are colorblind.